Staying Foreclosures...Can We Get It Right?

Looks like the Obama Administration is going to take another swing at this horrible debacle.

What a testament to the mess we put ourselves in that we can not seem to help those folks who are in trouble, much less clean up the problems.

Heroes

Gail Collins (op-ed writer for New York Times) has a new book out about women who changed the world in the 1960s and 1970s. Sounds like a great book!

Science Wow

Hate to admit it to my physic's professors, but I haven't a clue what this all means, but it sure evokes a "wow," from me.

Mortgage Problems Increase

If this doesn't scare us, not much should. One in ten mortgages are at least one month late in payments.

Recovery?

China First

I thought this article was a fantastic analysis on why China now dominates the world economy (in my opinion they are not a developing nation, they are fully developed) and how America's corporate leaders made China what it is today.

There is nothing wrong with buying American!

Breast Cancer

I've been spending a lot of time in a hospital the past two weeks. Despite the fact my father worked at one for almost two decades, I have a whole new appreciation of hospital staff. Then, I saw this video (click here to watch). It's amazing. Gave me an even greater appreciation for people who on a daily basis deal with life and death.

An American Hero

Elizabeth Warren did this fabulous interview with The New Yorker. Watch it, it will make you feel better about American's trying to help with this economic nightmare.

It's Unemployment, Mr. Buffet

I rarely enjoy citing Arianna Huffington, but she nailed the economy and the dissonance between our "leaders" and the rest of us when she wrote this appeal to Warren Buffet, asking him to "put down the pom-poms" and think of real solutions to the economy.

Sure all the banks and Wall Street are doing well. But Main Street? With unemployment to probably go over 10% and the under-employed hovering around 20%?

Remember the 1992 Clinton Campaign sign in the campaign office: it's the economy, stupid? Well, Mr. Buffet, it's unemployment, living wages, and some benefits....

Money Printing Machine Called The Olympic Games

One of the most interesting and fun experiences of my life was attending the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. But, I also agree with some Olympic Games historians that the 1984 Olympics were the original corporate games. After Los Angeles was awarded the games, they watched in horror as Montreal lost millions and millions of dollars trying to build stadiums, housing, and accommodate the influx of hundreds of thousands of fans. The head of the LA Olympic Organizing Committee, Peter Uberoth promised Los Angeles would not be left in debt. And he proceeded to sell to corporations every single inch of "real estate" where they could emblazon their names, corporate logos, or entertain swanky clients. In fact, one of my favorite stories of this marketing of the Olympics was with 7-11. The LA Organizing Committee called the head marketers of 7-11 and offered them the chance of a lifetime. If they contributed a bazillion dollars the velodrome would be names the 7-11 Velodrome. "Great, we'll do it," came the reply. A few minutes later the phone rang at the LA Organizing Committee offices. It was 7-11 wanting to know what was a velodrome.

It comes as no surprised then, that the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in British Columbia, Canada, is already a money printing machine for corporations. If you want tickets to the events, well, forget about it unless you have thousands and thousands of dollars. Most of the tickets are already distributed to corporations who sponsor the Olympic Games. Think about the banks US taxpayers bailed out. They will be wining and dining big time clients at hockey matches, down hill skiing venues, and speed skating.

Back in 1984 it was relatively easy. You called a number, got a booklet, filled out your preferences, and bought tickets for not a lot of money (if I could go...). Now, now it's all about lining someone's pocket. Ticket aggregators have made it virtually impossible for a normal person to see events unless they somehow miraculously win a lottery!

Which isn't to say the idea of the Olympic Games still isn't noble. But it certainly has been corrupted beyond what the modern Olympics should be about.

Our Congressmen and Women As Mouthpieces

One of the dirtiest secrets in Washington, DC is that most legislation is written by lobbyists. Environmental lobbyists sit in rooms with Congressional staffers and are probably re-working climate change legislation. Health care insurers are sitting closely with with Senate staffers strategizing how to re-work the House's health care bill that passed a week ago.

So it should not be a surprise that Genetech lobbyists wrote floor speeches for both Republican and Democratic Congressmen and Women to enter into the Congressional Record during the health care votes last week. Word for word that the corporate lobbyists wrote were entered into the record.

It's so surprising there has yet to be a revolution in this country. We are no longer that different than when King George "owned" this country. His courtesans whispered in his ears about great profits to be made in the new world, they controlled his reign and rule. Our "rulers" are not that much different.

Salish Sea

It's now somewhat official. Linking Canada and the US, off the coasts of Washington State and the Providence of British Columbia is the Salish Sea.

Salish is the collective name of various Native American tribes scattered throughout the coastal lowlands of Puget Sound, the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and the Straits of Georgia.

Names, I believe, resonate locale. While there is some controversy over this name change, I think it speaks to "this neck of the woods." And reflects the fact that boundaries are truly artificial, the waters flow between Canada and the US, between straits and sounds. Salish Sea.

America's Lost Decade

When the last remnants of the Bush Administration and the incoming Obama started trying to fix the economic depression (oops, I mean debacle) economists talked about Japan's lost decade (meaning the 1990s) which there was an economic stabilization but no growth. These economists were warning our policy makers to not create a recovery where "no one wins."

But really, this past decade has already been a lost decade for Americans. Finally someone wrote about it here. And if you begin to examine the signs, or so-called "green shoots," where the Obama Administration is claiming there is a recovery, you will see it sure isn't impacting main street.

And this could be the political reaction.

Junior, a Mariner for One More Year!

I'll admit that last year I was a cynic about the Mariners signing Ken Griffey, Jr. But, now I think it's great he will be back for one more year. The only game I went to this past season, he hit a home run. The stadium was electric. Isn't that really what it's all about?

Bring it on, 2010 Major League Baseball!

Fort Hood

Unfortunately, eulogies usually become great speeches. President Obama's talk the the Fort Hood memorial service, on the eve of Veterans Day, is perfect in tone and content.

Anxious About Flying? Someone is Watching You

I dunno, what really concerns me is that these TSA profilers are working off of only 4 days of training! Yikes!

10.2%

Unemployment: 10.2%. And rising.

Mortgage Industry Redux

Normally I don't like to re-post, much less from Huffington Post, but here is a great article about what went wrong in the mortgage industry.

Warren Buffett's Train Set

Just in time for Christmas, Warren Buffett bought himself a railroad. Burlington Northern Santa Fe, a legendary rail line that helped "open up" The Grand Canyon and now provides freight hauling services throughout the country. One of BNSF's major customers are the coal fields of Wyoming and the great ports on the West Coast. This is a bold move by Buffett, who tends to acquire companies and hold onto them for a long time rather than churn for immediate shareholder profits.

It's also, Buffett said in his press release, a statement on his bullishness about the American economy.

Perhaps. But he is also obligated to make money for his shareholders and as we begin our national conversation about how we can change our lifestyles to slow down the rate of anthropogenic enhancements to global climate change, rail transportation will begin to figure prominently into the discussions about movements of goods and services. Trains are much more efficient at hauling freight than trucks, at least for long distances.

Some commentators have said this acquisition is about real estate. A number of years ago, Burlington Northern shed it's real estate division, Plum Creek, and the Santa Fe lines also did not have extensive holdings in the checkerboard lands deeded by the Federal Government in the late 1800s as a subsidy to the railroads for their expansions across the continent.

No, this is about wheels, rails, and locomotives.

Pretty cool train set.

Global Warming, Inc

I've had a love/hate relationship with Al Gore that stems back to the 1980s. Earth in the Balance was in many ways a phenomenal book, but it's optimism in technological solutions for disastrous environmental problems bothered me. There was no critical thinking about the environmental problems caused by technology.

And while I admire his emphatic and seemingly no-nonsense warnings about global climate change in Inconvenient Truth, I've always thought Tipper and he were a bit disingenuous promoting change in our life styles when their life style was rather, in my opinion, extravagant. I mean, how large of a house does one need, and I don't care if it's powered by coal, solar, or windmill. It's about consumption.

Plus, a little known fact about Gore, until today's article in the New York Times, is that he invests heavily in the technologies that he promotes will "save us" from global warming.

One of those technologies, smart meters, just received a huge grant from the Federal government. Metering of utilities has been around for a long time. It's one of the ways utilities figure out how much you owe them for water, natural gas, electricity. Smart meters are being sold to the public as a way for the consumer to determine when they are not using as much energy so they can spread their consumption around toward "off hours." But really, smart meters are a form of, well, er, intrusion. Currently, appliance manufacturers are installing in new appliances the ability for the appliance to "talk" with the electrical grid. The result of the "conversation," will be when your appliance turns on, for instance, when the dishwasher will operate. You wil no longer be able to just push the button. Smart meters will be able to tell the utility and frankly, at the risk of being paranoid, other agencies such as law enforcement, exactly when and how you're using energy.

Stop those indoor pot growers!

But seriously, it's a lot more intrusion than we are accustom.

But more importantly, Al Gore is making a lot of money off of his global warming warnings. Is that a good thing? What concerns me is his lack of, to use the over used word, transparency, on this. It's not like he stands up in his movie, or his speeches, gives his Power Point presentation, and then says: Oh, by the way, I've invested money and stand to make a lot of money in the very technologies I am advocating we all adopt.

Hmmm. Seems like a little bit of a conflict of interest to me.

Big Tents and the Grand Old Party

It seems the party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt is no longer. Heck it seems the party of Barry Goldwater is long gone. Even Richard Nixon might not recognize this Republican Party.

It's more like the party of Joe McCarthy, full of litmus tests, fake loyalty oaths, and political ideological cleansings. And even more disturbingly, this push to the radical right is being led by talk show hosts!

In a Congressional District held by Republicans since 1872, a woman who was moderate, Dede Scozzafara, sought to replace another moderate, who President Obama appointed as Secretary of the Army. Then the ultra-right wing talk show hosts went nuts. A few people in the district are trying to play this as a grassroots thing, but really, it's national talk-show hosts bullying Ms. Scozzafara. She is pro-choice, neutral on gay issues, and just wanted to do good things for her neighborhood.

The right-wingers found an ultra-conservative who didn't even live in the District when he registered for the office. And by the time the talk-show hosts were done with Ms. Scozzafara, she decided to stop her campaign on the weekend before the election and endorse the Democrat.

Frankly this is sad. Democracy only thrives when there are vibrant and multiple points of view with access to the public sphere. By bullying this viable and interesting candidate to abandon her party and her chance at being an effective legislator, the right-wing talk show hosts have essentially caused a junta, a take over. And they talk like they care about the regular person, but they sure as heck don't want the regular guy to just make a choice.

And what ever happened to the party of the big tent, that allows diversity of opinions, as long as they care about certain principles.

It's sad. Democracy took a hit.

After I posted this, a blog I read about rural issues posted this.